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I'd like to find if possible the orders possible for $1-\gamma$ given a $\gamma\in\mathbb{F}_q$ of given order $\mathcal{o}$ (where $q=p^f$).

Which is clear is that these order have the same degree (degree: minimal $f$ such that $\mathcal{o}\mid p^f-1$ ie the degree of the minimal polynomial of $\gamma$ ie the minimal $f$ such that $\gamma$ is in $\mathbb{F}_{p^f}$).

More precisely if $\mu$ is the minimal polynomial of $\gamma$ on $\mathbb{F}_p$ the minimal polynomial of $1-\gamma$ is $\mu(1-X)$. So it only depends of the conjugacy class of $\gamma$ (that can be seen with Frobenius too).

For example with $\gamma\in\mathbb{F}_9\setminus\mathbb{F}_3$:

  • the $\gamma$ of order 8 with minimal polynomial $\Phi_{8,1}=\mu=X^2-X-1$ have $1-\gamma$ of same order because $\mu(1-X)=\mu(X)$;
  • the $\gamma$ of order 8 with minimal polynomial $\Phi_{8,2}=\mu=X^2+X-1$ have $1-\gamma$ of order 4 because $\mu(1-X)=X^2+1=\Phi_4(X)$;
  • the $\gamma$ of order 4 with minimal polynomial $\Phi_4=X^2+1$ have $1-\gamma$ of order 8 because for involutive reasons $\Phi_4(1-X)=\Phi_{8,2}(X)$.

As we see here there is more generally an action of the affine transformation (and even of $\operatorname{Gl}_2(\mathbb{F}_q)$) on the conjugacy class of $\mathbb{F}_q$ elements which respect the degree.

I have seen on the net studies of the impact on the order of $\gamma\mapsto\gamma+1/\gamma$ (order of related elements) but I can't find anything on the impact of $\gamma\mapsto1-\gamma$.

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    $\begingroup$ The (Weil?) bound for Jacobi sums suggests that the orders of $\gamma$ and $\gamma+1$ behave like independent random variables, so we could expect that any two sufficiently large orders can occur (and can prove this for large-enough orders, depending on the factorizability of $q-1$). $\endgroup$
    – Will Sawin
    Commented May 3, 2022 at 22:14
  • $\begingroup$ I'm confused by the paragraph "As we see here …." As you point out, affine transformations don't respect the order of elements of $\mathbb F_q$ (or even their being non-$0$). Also, why refer to conjugacy classes when $\mathbb F_q$ is Abelian? \\ TeX note: $\mathcal o$ \mathcal o looks the same as $o$ o, so you might want to choose some other symbol. $\endgroup$
    – LSpice
    Commented May 3, 2022 at 22:46
  • $\begingroup$ Yoou're right: I mean respect the degree $\endgroup$ Commented May 4, 2022 at 7:19

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